Burgoyne,
SIR JOHN, military officer; born in England, February 24,
1723; was liberally educated, and entered the army at an early age.
While a subaltern he clandestinely married a daughter of the Earl of
Derby, who subsequently aided him in acquiring military promotion
and settled $1,500 a year upon him. He served with distinction in
Portugal in 1762. The year before, he was elected to Parliament, and
gained his seat as representative of another borough, in 1768, at an
expense of about $50,000. In the famous Letters of Junius he was
severely handled. Being appointed to command in America, he arrived
at Boston May 25, 1775; and to Lord Stanley he wrote a letter,
giving a graphic account of the
battle on Bunker
(Breed's) Hill. In December, 1776, he returned to England, and
was commissioned lieutenant-general. Placed in command of the
British forces in Canada, he arrived there early in 1777, and in
June he began an invasion of the province of
New York by way of
Lake
Champlain and the Hudson Valley.

He
left St. Johns on the Sorel (June, 1777) with a brilliant and
well-appointed army of 8,000 men, and ascended Lake Champlain in
boats. At the falls of the Bouquet River, near the western shore of
the lake, he met about 400 Indians in council, and after a feast
(June 21, 1777) he made a stirring speech to them. On July 1 he
appeared before
Ticonderoga, which was inadequately garrisoned.
General St.
Clair, in command there, was compelled to evacuate the post, with
Mount Independence opposite (July 5 and 6), and fly towards Fort
Edward. on the upper Hudson, through a portion of Vermont. In a
battle at HUBBARDTON the Americans were beaten and dispersed by the
pursuing British and Germans. St. Clair had sent stores in boats to Skenesboro (afterwards Whitehall), at the head of the lake. These
were overtaken and destroyed by the pursuing British. Burgoyne
pressed forward almost unopposed, for the American forces were very
weak. The latter retreated first to Fort Edward, and then gradually
down the Hudson almost to Albany. The British advanced but slowly,
for the Americans, under the command of
General Philip Schuyler,
harassed them at every step. An expedition sent by Burgoyne to
capture stores and cattle, and procure horses in this region and at
Bennington, Vermont, was defeated in a battle at Hoosick, New
York
(August 16), by a force hastily gathered under
General Stark.

Already another invading force of British regulars, Canadians,
Tories, and Indians, under Colonel St. Leger, which was sent by
Burgoyne, by way of Oswego, to march down the Mohawk Valley and meet
the latter at Albany, had been defeated in a
battle at Oriskany (August 6).
Schuyler was superseded by
Gates in command
of the northern army. Gates formed a fortified camp on
Bemis's
Heights to oppose the onward march of Burgoyne down the Hudson
Valley. There he was attacked (September 19) by the British; and,
after a severe battle, the latter retired to their camp on the
heights of Saratoga (afterwards Schuylerville) to await the approach
of Sir Henry Clinton from New
York. The latter captured forts on the Hudson Highlands, and sent
marauding expeditions up the river that burned Kingston. Again
Burgoyne advanced to attack Gates. He was defeated (October 7), and
again retired to his camp. Finding it impossible to retreat, go
forward, or remain quiet, he surrendered his whole army, October 17,
1777. See BEMIS'S HEIGHTS.

Surrender of General Burgoyne

The vanquished troops made prisoners to the Americans by a
convention for the surrender of them, made by Gates and Burgoyne,
were marched through New
England to Cambridge, near Boston, to be embarked for Europe.
The Congress had ratified the agreement of Gates that they should
depart, on giving their parole not to serve again in arms against
the Americans. Circumstances soon occurred that convinced
George Washington
that Burgoyne and his troops intended to violate the agreement at
the first opportunity, and it was resolved by the Congress not to
allow them to leave the country until the British government should
ratify the terms of the capitulation. Here was a dilemma. That
government would not recognize the authority of the Congress as a
lawful body; so the troops were allowed to remain in idleness in
America four or five years. Burgoyne, alone, was allowed to go home
on his parole. The British ministry charged the Congress with
absolute perfidy; the latter retorted, and justified their acts by
charging the ministry with meditated perfidy. Owing to the
difficulty of finding an adequate supply of food for the captive
troops in New England, the Congress finally determined to send them
to Virginia. Commissioners
sent over, in the spring of 1778, to tender a scheme of
reconciliation, offered a ratification of the convention, signed by
themselves; but Congress would recognize no authority inferior to
the British ministry for such an act. Finally, in pursuance of a
resolution of Congress (October 15, 1778), the whole body of the
captives (4,000 in number), English and German, after the officers
had signed a, parole of honor respecting their conduct on the way,
took up their line of march, early in November, for Charlottesville,
Virginia, under the command of Major-General Phillips. Col.
Theodoric Bland was appointed by Washington to superintend the
march. It was a dreary winter's journey of 700 miles through
New England,
New York,
New Jersey,
Pennsylvania,
Maryland, and
Virginia. The routes of the
two nationalities were sometimes distant from each other, and
sometimes the same, until they reached
Valley Forge, when they went
in the same line until they had crossed the Potomac River. They
remained in Virginia until October, 1780, when the danger that the
captives might rise upon and overpower

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